Civil Society

Islam and the West: Clash or War?

By Naiem A. Sherbiny
Senior Advisor, Ibn Khaldun Washington

Observing international media these days I am struck by the significance Westerners attach to events in the Muslim world. International papers, magazines, radio, and TV all dedicate surprisingly extensive coverage to events and developments in the Muslim world. There is not a single day that passes by without that extensive coverage, at times exceeding 60 percent and occasionally reaching 80 percent.

Since September 11, Islam has been not only on the radar screen of the West, but also under its microscope. That cataclysmic event did not occur in vacuum: it culminated a series of aggressive attacks between Islam and the West since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The string of events is now too long to count or remember: the Balfour Declaration (1917); extremist Jewish terrorism of Palestinian population (1930s); the first Arab-Israeli War (1948); Suez and the subsequent tri-partite war (1956); third Arab-Israeli War (1967); fourth Arab-Israeli War (1973); Iran hostage crisis (1979) under president Carter; Israeli-sanctioned massacres of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon (1982), the massacre of US marines in Beirut (1983), US bombardment of Libya (1986), and blowing off western planes at Lockerby (1988), all under president Reagan; the Iraq war (1991) following Saddam’s occupation of Kuwait under the first president Bush.

The clashes under president Clinton reflected a more determined Islam; the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York (1993); the impasse of US forces in Somalia (1994); blowing up the Khobar complex housing American military families in Saudi Arabia (1996); blowing up two American embassies in East Africa (1998); the bombardment of Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (1999), and the attack on American war ship in the Gulf of Aden (2000). The clashes under the second president Bush, longer and more ferocious, reflect an equally determined West: the Afghanistan War (2001) and its aftermath; the Iraq War (2003) and the subsequent occupation by US forces; the ongoing frictions over Iran’s nuclear power; and now the hideous cartoons from Denmark, of all places. In all such clashes, while the US has figured prominently, it was not the sole actor in the drama: other US allies have played a significant, if not equal role.

Some Muslim intellectuals are in denial about the significance of those events, and like to sugarcoat them or consider them in isolation of one another. If they could only connect the long history of dots all over the Muslim world, they would be shocked by what they find: not a clash of civilizations, but an ongoing war – declared or undeclared. What Samuel Huntington concluded in his book The Clash of Civilizations (1996) was based on a longer reading of history, tracking events back to the 11^th Century. Readers that take Huntington’s long view or my shorter view come to the same conclusion about the war between Islam and the West: like all other wars, there are no winners or losers. All parties lose. What can be done to address these serious issues?

Beyond the manifestations of open conflicts lurks mutual unease if not hostility under layers of political correctness and fake civility. However, human knowledge has made major strides in conflict management during the last 30 years. Given the human and material losses associated with wars, the temptation for cool heads is strong to avert them. The first order of business is to recognize that such latent hostility does exist; it serves no purpose to deny it. Second, we need to identify and explain the underlying reasons. Religious differences, variant methods of conflict management, and Western aggression are among such reasons. After a millennium history of clashes, Islam and the West are at crossroads. For the first time in that long history we are looking at a possible peaceful resolution of many long-standing conflicts. Some of us have elected to talk of ‘dialogue of civilizations’. However, such talk maybe pre-mature at present. As long as past injustices are ignored or covered up, conflicts will persist and clashes will continue.

What is needed first is unbiased analysis of historical conflicts between Islam and the West to get to their root causes, especially those of the 20^th Century. International expert teams working under UN auspices could identify those without great difficulty in a relatively short time. They should recommend measures to rectify past injustices. Conflicting parties could negotiate satisfactory resolutions sanctioned by international forums, especially the UN Security Council. Before then, it would be wishful thinking to talk of dialogue of civilizations.